Strategic Marketing for Health and Social Care: An NHS Case Study

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STRATEGIC MARKETING
FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL
CARE
NHS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 ESSAY............................................................................................................................4
TASK 2 REPORT.......................................................................................................................10
TASK 3 PRESENTATION...........................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 26
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 27
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INTRODUCTION
This report is based on the strategic management of health and social care. The organization
chosen here is NHS (National Health Service), which was founded in the UK in the year 1948
with an aim to provide best quality health care services to the needy people in the UK
(Korkiakangas et al., 2014). This report will include the role of strategic management and
the role of marketing in the health and social care. The principles of strategic management
that can be applied in the health and social care, the internal and external analysis of NHS
through SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, porters five force analysis all is to be done in the first
part of the report. The second part will be more focused on the internal analysis and the
stakeholders of NHS. Every organization whether it is doing business for profit or is non for
profit organization branding is very much necessary and how branding can be used as a tool
in the HSC industry is to be determined in this report.
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TASK 1 ESSAY
Application of marketing in the HSC sector
Marketing is defined as a set of activities that involve the activity of satisfying the customer
needs, attract them and retain them. Marketing involves promotion and advertisement of
the organizational products and services. Marketing is also very important in HSC industry
as to promote the services provided by the organization, what are the various facilities that
the organization provide are to be communicated to the general public by the marketing
department in order to attract the donation and also to attract the customers who will help
in increasing the revenues of the organization.
Principles of strategic marketing-
Strategic management involves organizing the organizational resources to achieve the vision
and mission of the organization. The process starts with identifying and determining the
objectives that are to be fulfilled in the future, then scanning the environment
simultaneously identifying the competitors. The nest step in the process is to analyze the
internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and then formulation of strategies is
to be done, the process ends with the proper implementation of the formulated strategies.
For NHS the first step is to determine the strategic aims and objectives which is
SWOT analysis of NHS
Strength – the biggest strength of NHS is that it has a good market share and a very positive
image in the business environment. NHS has a clinical leadership model and that is also
further enhancing (Dunleavy et al., 2011). NHS has a very good CQC report which provides
proof that NHS is delivering the services at a very high-quality standard and a good
performance constantly. The other strength that is the most important is that NHS has a
very efficient and dedicated workforce that helps in achieving the goals of NHS. NHS has a
very positive track record that has changed the traditional pattern of delivering services in
the clinical and social industry. The governance mechanism of NHS is well developed with a
good research and development system (Dunleavy et al., 2011).
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Weakness- the biggest weakness of NHS is high cost is incurred for staffing the employees
through an agency, and there is a regular requirement of employees the agencies costs NHS
very high. The bed occupancy level is high and increasing constantly especially in the
emergencies. There is an increase in employee turnover as high vacancies in nursing and
AHP staff is being detected (Dunleavy et al., 2011).
The ratio of non-elective to the elective activity of NHS is too high which should be lower in
normal cases. The productivity of NHS is decreasing at a very economical rate but still, there
is a decrease in the theatre's productivity. The financial health of the organization is not very
good in the short term basis as current cash deficits are being diagnosed. NHS is choosy
about the people they help or care their first preference is to help people in their
community which is a weakness of NHS (Dunleavy et al., 2011).
Opportunities – NHS has a variety of different opportunities which can be grabbed in the
coming future like to increase the elective referrals and the elective ratio. The underlying
system-wise sustainability plan is a new opportunity for the NHS. NHS to increase the
income and revenues for the trust it had to work with private organisations, commercial
sector companies (Dunleavy et al., 2011).
Through working with the third sector NHS can increase its branches, especially in the main
areas. Through carrying out various research and developments a very good opportunity can
be identified for the betterment of people. NHS has an opportunity to work with people and
help them to improve their image in front of the population of the UK. There is a huge scope
for NHS to generate more income from private patients who face severe health problems.
lastly, NHS have the opportunity to work with the society and gain the trust and loyalty from
the public (Dunleavy et al., 2011).
Threats- the biggest threat is from the incapability of delivering of CCG planned reductions
in the emergency services especially. Financial problems that are being occurred in for the
short term can create a cash inconvenience in performing the day to day activities. Since
there is an uncertainty in the UK’S economy due to BREXIT so the sources of funding are also
uncertain and the probability of getting funds is very low(Dunleavy et al., 2011).
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There is a huge threat is from the competitors and the other local trusts which can get
funding from the sources. Other competitors may gain huge customer attention and
decrease the customers of the NHS. A significant threat from the loss of already scheduled
and contracted services through the AQP process. The expansion and the new ownership
may increase in the cost of rent and other expenses (Dunleavy et al., 2011).
BCG matrix- BCG matrix is a short form of Boston consultancy group; this is the model that
defines the growth and share of the organization and its specific brands in the market in
their respective industry. BCG matrix defines four types of situations of an organization i.e.
stars, cash cow, question mark and dogs( Mohajan, 2017).
Stars- Stars are the situation where the company is having a huge market share and good
market growth. This means that the industry is growing at an increasing rate and there is a
very high growth rate in the market. NHS is having a very high rate of growth in the market
as there is high bed occupancy rate in the hospitals of NHS; also there is a good market6
share of NHS in the industry of health and social care (Mohajan, 2017).
Question mark- at this stage the organization doesn't have any growth in the industry but
due to a very large market share, the organization can yield varied profits. NHS doesn’t fall
in this category because there are growth opportunities due to change in environment and
increasing rate of health issues in the UK (Mohajan, 2017).
Question mark- this stage is when the market share is low in the industry but the growth
rates are high, in this category NHS may fall because of the competitors manage to cover a
larger market share in the market than the possibility of a reduction in market share is
highly possible (Mohajan, 2017).
Dog- in this situation the market share and the growth rate both are very low and in this
situation, the organization should divest themselves. This is not in the case of NHS as there
is a significant market share with a high growth rate in the HSC industry (Mohajan, 2017).
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Role of marketing in the decision making for the HSC industry
Marketing plays an important role in identifying the internal and external situation of the
organization and thus based on these strengths and weaknesses the strategies of the
organization is derived that can help in grabbing the opportunities for NHS and minimizing
its threats (Kitapci et al., 2014).
Market equilibrium-market planning and market equilibrium are always been changing in
the hospitality industry in the UK. The drivers of market equilibrium are a combination of
both internal and external factors. Market equilibrium is when the demand is equal to
supply, and for NHS the demand for saving people is very high but due to lack of funds, the
services are sometimes not being delivered to some people.
Market share- market share is the measuring tool to calculate the situation of the
organization and its position in the overall competitive market. The market share of the
organization is very important to be calculated as it defines the goodwill of the organization.
NHS has positive goodwill in the environment. Higher the market share, higher will be the
monopoly and presence of the organization in the industry in the specific area. As NHS
operates in the UK so the market share of NHS will be identified for the area covering the UK
market (Cooper et al., 2010).
The market share provides help in comparing the organizations on the basis of their
popularity and revenues. The basic method to calculate the market share of an organization
is through revenue method, firstly calculate the overall revenues of the organization for a
year or month or quarter whichever may be applied. Then identify the industry revenues in
the country. Then divide the organizational revenues or income by the total industry
revenues of the country. This ratio calculated is called market share of the organization in
the country. The market share of NHS is needed to be calculated to identify the market
position and ranking of NHS against its competitors (Cooper et al., 2010). The higher ranking
will signify the good performance and good market share of NHS. Various factors influence
the market share for NHS is bed occupancy, political and environmental instability that
cause the health issue in the UK population. NHS has different categories for defining its
market share that is in England the number of patients admitted in England in NHs is 1.4
million, in Scotland, the ratio is 300 thousand and in northern Ireland, 608 thousand people
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are admitted in the NHS hospital. This defines that a large population of the UK prefers NHS
for the HSC services. Also, the market share of NHS is more than that of its competitor
Nuffield health and FITNUTS. The annual revenue of NHS is £67 million with a rating of
67/100 in the UK. The market share in terms of revenue is good and satisfactory and the
rating is very good and impressive, this means that NHS has a good market share in the UK.
The annual rate of GDP that is invested in the NHS is 7.5 % approx. total spending of
national income on NHS is 107 GBP in the year 2016-17 (Cooper et al., 2010).
Sustainable competitive advantage- as this is government or public organization for the UK
population and it provides best services because of the large number of employees that are
associated with NHS and NHS provide best quality services that help in gaining the
sustainable competitive advantage over the others (Kumar et al., 2011).
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TASK 2 REPORT
Introduction - this report is based on the internal and external analysis of NHS; this report
will also be including the resource analysis of NHS, what are the pricing strategies of NHS.
The overall vision, mission and goals of the NHS that define the strategies and affect the
stakeholders of NHS are to be discussed. The methods for conducting a market research,
market planning and planning cycles of NHS are to be identified and analyzed.
1. Critical analysis of the internal and external environment of HSC organizations
Internal management analysis-
Internal management of NHS is very flexible and according to NHS values, all the
employees are equally contributing to the services with a predefined schedule that is
flexible to absorb the emergencies.
Strength analysis –
Strengths of NHS include the support from employees who are committed to the
organization, and the human resource of NHS include 112.1 thousand employees,
approximately 290 thousand nurses and 24.1 thousand well-trained ambulance staff
all of them help in giving high-quality services (Jameson et al., 2011).
The relations with BCCG have been improved and revived, which enhances the
desires to achieve the tasks differently and creatively solve the problems with
innovation techniques (Jameson et al., 2011).
Good relations with HOSC which helps in gaining the business and customers from
the private clinics. The main vision of NHS is to provide best services which are being
fulfilled with this (Jameson et al., 2011).
NHS has very good links with the health watch organizations including BBC (Jameson
et al., 2011).
Weakness analysis –
There is a very high rate of people who need help who are facing severe problems in
the UK but NHS doesn’t have that much of revenues and incomes that it can support
the requests of all the population that need the assistance (Hurst, 2010).
Still, some is lacking in the relationship building with the suppliers, and thus the
effect of this can be seen in the stock and materials for treating the people. The
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loyalty and trust for NHS is reducing due to high-end promotions by the competitors
and this needs to be rebuild before the competitors gain the advantage (Hurst, 2010)
Resource analysis- there is a shortage of the resources because of the insufficient
fund in NHS due to BREXIT effect. (Hurst, 2010).
Product life cycle – Product life cycle in the service industry like HSC is the time
taken to deliver the medical services to the people and discharge them and so the
time of discharging the patients is to be reduced which is the aim (Garrison, 2010).
Vision- the vision of NHS is to achieve perfection in delivering the services by
providing safe and high-quality health care services first to the people of their
community.
Mission- mission of NHS for 2017-19 is-
1. To improve the efficiency of health care services (Reynolds and McKee, 2012).
2. To develop an excellent environment for the people who are being treated by
NHS (Reynolds and McKee, 2012).
3. To reduce the intensity of avoidable harm (Reynolds and McKee, 2012).
4. To improve the planning for discharge procedures so that the patients can be
timely released (Reynolds and McKee, 2012).
Organizational values of NHS- the organizational values of NHS involves four
components-
1. Dignity and respect- NHS values every human being and respects every
individual and the NHS is ready to challenge the disrespectful behaviour of the
people (Jacobs et al., 2013).
2. One team- all the staff whether clinical, doctors, nurses or any other staff all
work in a team to provide better services with an all-time approach of “can do”.
NHS employees equally help in delivering valued services (Jacobs et al., 2013).
3. Compassion- NHS doesn't wait for people to ask for help when they get the
information they reach for help because they care for the people (Jacobs et al.,
2013).
4. Safety and quality- NHS staff takes responsibility for their activities and deliver
safe and quality based services. Service quality can be improved with high
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technology services for which research and up gradation in technology is being
planned (Jacobs et al., 2013).
2. Evaluation of methods that are used to collect market research information in HSC
METHODS USED TO COLLECT MARKET RESEARCH INFORMATION IN HSC
Market research information is very useful for creating a marketing plan that seeks
information relating to the sensitivities of HSC provisions (Brannen, 2017). Marketing
research information can be obtained through multiple ways such as through primary
research and secondary research.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Primary research is the process in which an individual conducts research by him and obtain
research information. Individual target people and ask questions related to the topic to gain
primary data. Primary research can be qualitative and quantitative in which research can
obtain research data theoretically and statistically respectively (Meier et al., 2016).
Following are the methods used to collect market research information in HSC through
primary research:
Focus Groups
Focus groups are one of the key methods of primary research that can be used to collect
market research information in HSC. The focus groups help individual to collect qualitative
research market information that shows the issues and sensitivities of HSC provision. In
focus group individual ask insightful questions related to the topic to a group of people and
gain their thoughts, feedback or perspectives on the question (Fernández et al., 2015). One
of the main thing in the focus group method is that the people on the group should have
something in common such as all the people belong to the HSC background to gain the
market research information. Focus group can be conducted at any place that suits the
individual and collects valuable information.
Interviews
The interview process also falls under the category of qualitative primary research in which
individual personally takes interviews of some people and ask questions related to the topic
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